Of coastal wind farms and hurricanes and other questions

Thursday’s story on the first wind farm on the Texas Coast seemed to pique a lot of interest and quite a few questions. I’ll try to answer them here.

I’d recommend reading the story if you haven’t, but here’s the quick version: Babcock & Brown officially opened its wind farm in Kenedy County last week, marking the first wind farm on the Texas Coast (or the Gulf Coast for that matter). Because the Texas Coast is a major migratory bird route, there was significant opposition to this farm and a neighboring farm on adjacent property. Here’s a presentation by Babcock & Brown that contains some interesting details on the farm and the radar system that’s supposed to ensure there aren’t any mass bird killings.

Now, to the questions:

One reader asked about what happens to these towering structures (each windmill is more than 400 feet tall) in a hurricane. According to Babcock & Brown, these structures have been tested at wind speeds in excess of 170 mph and were not damaged. This doesn’t mean, however, that hurricane-force winds are good for power production. The turbines are programmed to automatically rotate away from the wind and quit operating if wind speeds run in excess of 56 mph for 10 minutes or more.

One reader asked if the wind power numbers quoted in the story — 283 megawatts for this wind farm and roughly 9,000 for all the wind farms in the state — are capacity or output. They are capacity. As the reader points out, because the wind doesn’t always blow, actual production over a year would be roughly a third of that number for most wind farms. Babcock & Brown officials say that the wind in this area of the coast is good enough to push production into the 40 percent range. For comparison, coal plants are rated at 87 percent, nuclear at 90 percent and solar between 22 percent and 32 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Another reader asked how these power production numbers compare to the state’s total need. Good question, and one I should have definitely answered in the story. The maximum demand in the state is about 62,000 megawatts. That’s on hot summer days in the afternoon when most people crank up their air conditioning systems.

I hope this helps. Pease continue to post questions on stories or feel free to contact me directly.